1. Field
The present invention relates to a method of managing at least one asset associated with at least one digital work order or at least one element associated with the asset, and a system and a computer program for the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently available monitoring systems can track a particular asset or an unauthorized person. An example of the video surveillance system is IB-CCTV (digital recording monitoring system) International Business Machines Corporation (trademark) (hereinafter IBM (trademark)) Smart Surveillance System sold by IBM (trademark). The IB-CCTV mainly consists of a digital recording device and cameras. The digital recording device records an image from the camera as high-quality digital image and allows an image to be retrieved from the recorded image data. Multiple cameras are connectable to the digital recording device, and can be individually set in terms of image quality, speed, and schedule. IB-CCTV can reproduce images in conjunction with IB-ACCESS (building access control system), and thus can achieve high level security monitoring. The IBM (trademark) Smart Surveillance System also enables video analysis.
Assets (e.g., a computer, a computer peripheral device, a lighting device, an air handling unit, and a power generator) are managed and maintained on the basis of a work process. A work order is created based on this work process. Specific works for the management and maintenance are performed on the basis of this work order. The work order is automatically created so that the assets can be managed and maintained at a desired schedule (e.g., every month or every two months) or according to the frequency of use (e.g., every 300 operation hours), or is created by an asset manager when necessary. When the work order is approved through a predetermined work-flow, the work for the work order becomes an authorized work. The executable work is assigned to a worker in consideration of, for example: a date on which the work should be executed; a qualification, a skill, and years of experience of the worker to execute the work; and an amount of work already assigned to the worker. The worker checks the assigned work and registers the start and the completion of the work in a predetermined asset management application, or reports them to an asset management system.
Each asset is managed and maintained in accordance with the procedure standardized by the work order. Even in an emergent case, the asset is maintained by creating a work order for an emergent maintenance. In addition, work orders can be created such that the completion of work for the current work order may trigger start of work for the next work order.
For example, asset management and maintenance are implemented by use of International Business Machines Corporation (trademark) Maximo (trademark) Asset Management (hereinafter referred to as Maximo (trademark)) sold by IBM (trademark). One of functions of Maximo (registered trademark) is asset management.
Patent Literature 1 listed below describes an entrance notification technique using an RFID tag (paragraph [0001]). The invention of Patent Literature 1 includes the following processes (paragraph [0014]). Specifically, an RFID receiver is arranged around an area (monitoring area) such as a danger zone desired to be monitored for entrance detection, and an RFID tag is carried by or attached to a detection target moving object. The RFID tag stores therein: a content of an operation that the RFID receiver is desired to execute when the moving object enters the area (operation content); a condition for determining that the moving object enters the area monitored for the entrance detection (operation execution condition); and data required for the determination as to the condition (determination data). The RFID tag receives electric waves transmitted from the RFID receiver when the moving object approaches and enters the monitored area. The RFID receiver, on the other hand, receives the operation content, the operation execution condition, and the determination data from the RFID tag, determines whether the operation execution condition is satisfied using the determination data, and executes the operation content when the determination result is true.
Using a currently available video surveillance system, it is difficult to confirm that a user, e.g., a worker authorized to enter a management district where an asset is stored is not violating a security policy for the asset or the management district. Thus, there is a demand for a technique for monitoring or inspecting a moving object including the authorized user to confirm that the moving object is not violating the security policy for the asset or the management district.